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From our fabulous News Hawks!

Have you seen a TG-related news story online or in your local paper? Send it in to TGF and become a News Hawk! Don't assume we know everything that's out there, because you are our eyes and ears. To file a story, send it in to Cindy.



UK Girl born a boy wins new birth certificate

Contributed by Sabrina
via Associated Press
December 2, 1998

A GIRL of 10 who was born a boy has won an eight-year battle to have her birth certificate changed so that she can be legally recognised as a girl.

A 47-page submission by Prof Charles Brook, an endocrinologist at Great Ormond Street Hospital, London, where Joella Holliday has been treated, finally convinced the Office for National Statistics to take the rare step of changing the paperwork.

Her mother, Julia Farmer, 30, said she had been prepared to take her daughter's case to the High Court if necessary. Now mother and daughter, from Pinchbeck, Lincs, are waiting for the postman to bring the new birth certificate.

Joella was born with severe lower abdominal abnormalities and malformed organs. At first it was not clear if she was male or female but hormone tests showed her to be chromosomally male.

For the first year of her life she was treated as a baby boy. But following medical advice her parents put her in a dress and treated her as a girl from her first birthday.

Joella, who was originally christened Joel David Holliday, has enchanted staff at Great Ormond Street by her good spirits and fortitude. She said yesterday: "It's really good. Now I can look forward to getting married. It means a lot to me."

Mrs Farmer said: "She's just a normal little girl - she likes loud music, boys and shopping. There's nothing different about her at all. She's never been ribbed at school. She's just been accepted and always has been right from the beginning."

Joella's second christening will take place in three weeks' time. When she was born in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, her abnormalities were so severe that doctors feared for her life and she was quickly baptised.

Mrs Farmer said: "I had three scans during pregnancy, but nothing was picked up. When I came round they wouldn't tell me whether I had a boy or girl. All I knew was that she had a hole in her stomach. Then the chaplain came in to christen her and I knew then it must be bad and that they didn't think she was going to live. He asked me whether I had thought of any names and I said Joel if it's a boy, but we couldn't think of a girl's name. That's how Joel went on to the birth certificate."

Her mother's understanding was that her baby was hermaphrodite, having characteristics of both sexes. Joella's condition is called cloacal exstrophy and occurs in the embryo when there is a "mid-line fusion" of the cells that form the lower abdomen and genitalia.

She was referred to Philip Ransley, consultant urology surgeon, Great Ormond Street. The decision was taken that she would have a better and happier life if she lived it as female. Joella had her first surgery when she was 17 months old, followed by numerous operations and female hormone treatment.

Her mother said: "It was a terrible shock and it took a lot of thinking until we got to the decision that this is the only thing we could do. We were told that the operation should be done before she was 18 months old and they said we should set a day from which we would start treating her as a girl.

"We picked her first birthday and put her to bed as a boy. The next morning we put on a dress and she was Joella. As soon as we left the hospital we applied to have her birth certificate changed, but we were told it could not be. It was just so unjust and it's only with Prof Brook's help and my tenacity that we have got this far. It was not a case where we could get legal aid because there were no proceedings as such."

Prof Brook said yesterday it would have been a "disgrace" if the birth certificate had not been altered. He said: "What I can't understand is why everyone got in such a tizz about this and why it's taken so long. It seems no one understood the nature of Joella's complaint. It had not been explained properly to the relevant authorities and so they got it muddled up with transsexuals and all that rubbish. It has nothing to do with that at all. Joella had an embryological abnormality."

Prof Brook said he believed that Joella's assignment as a male child had been misguided rather than a mistake. It had not been appropriate to assign Joella to the male sex although she was "chromosomally a boy". He said: "By the time she was about a year old it became clear that it would be kinder to bring her up as a girl.

"She has had a lot of operations and I think she will do well. She is a very sweet child. If we had been involved right at the beginning, she would never have been registered as a boy."

The Rev John Read, the hospital chaplain who christened Joella, said: "It's nice to know that she is being christened again. It's a new start."



TG murdered in Boston

Contributed by GAIN Remailer
via Boston Herald
November 30, 1998

Rita Hesler, a transgender stage performer, died from multiple stab wounds received Saturday night after a violent struggle. Hester, was reportedly a cautious individual, and was noted as a lip-sync performer who recently had traveled to Europe where she performed a lip-syncing act in Germany and Greece. A neighbor called police to report a disturbance; when police arrived they found Hester in cardiac arrest. Hester later died at a Boston hospital.

According to friends, Rita was "a very conservative girl," as Stephanie Diamond, a friend, put it. Diamond added, "She didn't smoke. She didn't get drunk. But she always had fun."

Police said there were no signs of forced entry to her apartment, suggesting that she might have known her assailant.

According to reports she frequented a neighborhood bar near her home. The owner of the bar said that the other regulars knew about her transgender status, but that "She was just a regular person to us - somebody we knew and we liked and got along with."

According to reports not in the newspapers, Hester was last seen leaving the neighborhood bar, with one or two men either with her or following her.



Drag Banker: Believe It or Don't

Contributed by Stephanie Louise Gray
via Private Eye Magazine
December 3, 1998

Suspicion is growing in the UK that a famous banker who turned up in drag at his trial in a massive fraud case may not have been all he seemed.

The latest edition of satirical magazine Private Eye carries its own commentary on the Peter Young case. And they seem to be taking a somewhat cynical view of the matter. A few excerpts:

'A doctor writes: "I am increasingly asked: if I wear a dress in court, will I get off ? And the answer is: only if you are charged with unmanly offences like fraud. But do consult your fashion consultant as to the best way to put your message across. And remember, courts are full of men in wigs"'

'Why Peter/Elizabeth/Tracy Young made his first court appearance as a somewhat unconvincing woman when facing charges over a £200m fraud is a matter which will no doubt be the subject of the anticipated fitness-for-trial hearing expected next year. Especially as his estranged wife says he had never appeared in public like that before.'

'What of course his appearance did guarantee was massive publicity and a mini-riot when Young exited the court as photographers fought to snap "Elizabeth". This ugly scene could have been prevented if Young had posed for photographs as requested.'

'If a man can be allowed to decide to have a sex change operation, why is he unable to understand court proceedings regarding his own actions two years ago ? Supposing he had such an operation, would that make him fit to be tried at a future date wearing a dress ? All this may become clearer once the medical evidence is public of Young's mental state and his ability to understand criminal proceedings and give instructions - the test in order to face trial.'

The Eye also draws comparisons with Ernest Saunders and Roger Seelig in the Guinness illegal share dealings trial a few years ago. Saunders had his sentence halved because the court of appeal was persuaded that he had irreversible pre-senile dementia - Alzheimer's. Two years later he had recovered and was back in the company director business... Seelig's trial was halted because of his apparent mental breakdown while defending himself - he too recovered and was back in business within months.

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